Lehman follows Shirley, resigns

As a commentator noted earlier today, and as The Olympian reports, Russ Lehman has resigned.

“The stresses inherent in serving on a board that continues to suffer severe leadership and organizational problems are at this time, simply too disadvantageous to my health. I believe that my final responsibility as a resigning board member is to identify the specific leadership/organizational issues that, from my perspective, are rendering the board ineffective. The most critical of these issues is the lack of understanding or conflicting views about the role of a school board member,” his memo stated.

This comes as less of a surprise after Bob Shirley's early exit, especially given Lehman's ailing health. You can read Lehman's letter of resignation here.

The Board now requires two replacements, making three in the last six months.

we, me, you, and James Dobson

Recently James Dobson took umbrage with Barack Obama's notion that a person of faith, in a democracy, has to offer claims in support of her position without appealing to exclusively religious arguments. Dobson was blasted, and rightfully so, for twisting Obama's words into a claim that people of faith were somehow barred from introducing legislation offensive to nonbelievers.

The brouhaha illustrates the difference between democratic means and ends. For Dobson, democracy is not a value. It is a tool, effective or no, for producing valued ends. The pluralism held dear by those who value democracy in itself is, for Dobson, an unfortunate aspect of a messed up world. Thus, it's no surprise to me that Dobson would fundamentally (and some say maliciously) misinterpret Obama's words.

Two letters to today's Olympian illustrate Obama's point. Daniel Shaw, in the first:

Our national consciousness must rise above the "me" and start thinking in terms of "we." By voting yes for levies, you vote for the collective "we" and the world of tomorrow. By voting no, you vote for more intellectually challenged leaders who will run, control and decide your future.

Debra Brown, describing a road rage incident where no one stopped to help:

Here's the kicker: According to authorities, not ONE person called 9-1-1 to report the incident; not ONE person stopped to assist her, and it all happened during the morning commute!

What has this world come to?

When you see someone who needs help, PLEASE do yourself a favor and pay it forward.

Emphasis added in both examples.

Whether they're conscious of it, each writer is making a communitarian appeal couched in self-interested language. It's good for all of us won't sell it; It's good for you will. After all, if both writers are correct in their assessment that American society is fundamentally selfish, there's no other way.

can reading fiction make you a better person?

More thought provocation compliments of NewScientist: [sub. req.]

Intrigued to discover how engaging with fiction might affect a reader's sense of identity, Djikic and I, working with Peterson and Sara Zoeterman, devised a new study. We randomly assigned 166 participants to read either a short story by Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Little Dog, or a control text - a version of the story rewritten in documentary form (Creativity Research Journal, vol 20, in press). The texts were the same length and had the same characters, content and reading difficulty as well as the same level of interest for the readers.

Before and after reading, our subjects completed questionnaires that assessed their personality traits and their emotions. We found that people who read the Chekhov story underwent larger changes in personality than those who read the control text - although the types of changes varied from person to person. Results from the emotions questionnaire indicated that the personality changes were mediated by the emotions experienced while reading: a person's emotional state is known to influence their scores on personality tests.

We think that readers found it easier to identify with the characters in the literary story than in the documentary version. By empathising with these characters, they became a bit more like them - but each in their own way. It seemed as though readers' personalities loosened up. Although the changes we measured were probably temporary, repeated reading of fiction may have more lasting effects.

Whether the effect is always positive isn't certain; nor is it known whether narrative-based video games might produce a similar effect.

I like to think of it this way: when I publish my novel, I'm doing humanity a favor.

immortal, immemorable

As I was blogging, Dad spooned sugar on his midnight-Eastern snack--Frosted Mini-Wheats--and Mom and Melissa tied ribbons on wedding favors for sister Caroline's upcoming nuptials.

"Mom, you're immortalized on the blog, you know," I mused aloud.

Melissa adopted her mimicking-Mom-falsetto. (It sounds remarkably like mine.) "You be nice on your blog."

"I never said that," Mom said.

"Yes you did," I said. "Those are your exact words." Melissa agreed.

"Did I really?" Mom confessed. "Well, I am turning 55."

"Not till next May," Melissa said.

vengeance is Chris's

The most beleaguered of all White Sox fans used to be Chris, pictured here.

Last summer, Melissa and I visited Cellular Field when the Sox were in last place, hosting a hopeful Mariner squad. We rooted for the M's amid a sea of depressed Chrises. Seattle won.

This year, Chris enjoys a White Sox team in first place, a joy mitigated only slightly by the Cubs' resurgence. (Last rivalry match went to the Sox.)

We, on the other hand, are cursed with a woeful husk of a team, nearly 20 games out of first, with at least four or five players on the trading or chopping block, all hope abandoned.

Chris has his vengeance. He is not smiling, though. He knows his dark days will come again. Such is the way of baseball.

catchphrases to drop as if hot

One more linguistic entry for today: Ron Rosenbaum wants to know which catchphrases have been completely cliched out.

There's Stage 1, when you first hear a phrase and take pleasure in its imaginative use of language on the literal and metaphorical level. This may not be the most beguiling example, but consider "throw up a little in my mouth." I'm still kind of attached to it.

Then there's Stage 2, when you use it to establish "street cred" (time to throw "street cred" under the catchphrase bus?) or convey a sense of being au courant.

Then there's Stage 3, when the user acknowledges a phrase's over-ness and tries to extract some final mileage out of it by gently mocking it, usually by using ironic quotes, or adding "as they say" to the end.

Finally, there's Stage 4: terminal obsolence, dead phrase walking. Take "at the end of the day." It kind of stuns me whenever I find someone still saying "at the end of the day" with a straight face. What are they, stuck on stupid, as they say?

Rosenbaum ends with questions rather than ordinances. What, he asks, are we to do with "stay classy," "up in your grill," "overshare," "tell us something we don't know," "man up," "go-to," "drinking the Kool-Aid," or "mad props," among so many others?

So, for his and your edification, some edicts:

1. Permitted
Stay classy, overshare, go-to.

2. Forbidden
Up in your grill, tell us something we don't know, man up, drinking the Kool-Aid, mad props.

Complete list of bans and moratoria here.

shocker: Bob Shirley resigns

The Olympian reports:

Olympia School Board member Bob Shirley submitted his resignation to the Olympia School District, effective today. The resignation memo did not outline the reasons. Shirley did not answer his cell phone, and a person who answered his home phone said he was gone for the weekend.

I won't speculate; I just hope that it's not health related.

rolling back the gender-neutral tide

Facebook can't handle gender-neutral pronouns anymore. Not because of problems with English, but because of problems in translation:

Users who haven't specified their gender in their Facebook profiles will be asked to do so in the coming weeks. That way, Facebook doesn't have to default to "their" or the made-up word "themself," as it had been doing.

While not knowing someone's gender poses grammatical challenges in English, it has created even larger headaches as Facebook expands to other languages, where a gender-neutral option isn't available in plural form.

"People who haven't selected what sex they are frequently get defaulted to the wrong sex entirely," Naomi Gleit, a Facebook product manager, wrote Friday in a company blog.

I still the the general trend in English is greater tolerance for "their" and "themself." If other social networking sites pick up the change, though, perhaps we'll see a return to fully gendered pronouns as the only acceptable choice.

We leave aside the syntactic ambiguities in the article's headline: "State sex to cut grammar errors."

ten most popular TED talks

Not quite the 10 best, but certainly some of the most entertaining. It's not wasting time if it makes you smarter.

cat people in trouble again

Judith Ann Lawson of Olympia...

...was jailed for investigation of 20 counts of felony animal cruelty after animal control officers found 20 Persian cats locked up in cages inside the garage of her home.

The animals were found living in filth. Feces covered their bodies. In some cases, the weight of the hardened waste pieces had caused their heavily-matted fur to tear right off of their bodies.

One of the cats was found covered with open and infected sores. The cat also had a broken tail and severe respiratory problems that affected its breathing.

Test her for Toxoplasma gondii. Test these brothers, too. There are too many cases like this; it seems quite evident to me that living with too many cats is an invitation to dementia, and my hunch is that Toxoplasma is the cause. But I'm no researcher, and can't prove my case.

Added: The Olympian has much more detail, placing Lawson in Lacey. Seattle media often miss the distinction.

today's origin-of-life links

From NewScientist:
A list of some of the hardiest organisms that inhabit inhospitable environments.

A new discovery along those lines: life buried far, far under the rubble of an ancient meteorite impact.

Added: Martian soil: good for turnips?

From PZ Myers:
Learning about life's common ancestor by examining Amphioxus.

From AstroBio.net:
Life's early history on Earth is tough to track down, due to several billion years of volcanic, oceanic, tectonic, and atmospheric changes. So, why not look for Earth ejecta on the moon?

dead man predicting

A computer can predict executions with 90% accuracy. How? [sub. req.]

To find out which factors might be linked to executions, the researchers first "trained" their [Artificial Neural Network] by entering the profiles of 1000 death row inmates between 1973 and 2000. Half of this sample of prisoners had been executed and the other half had survived. Each profile contained 18 factors, including the inmate's sex, age, race, marital status, educational level and information on their capital offences.

They then fed in profiles for 300 more inmates from the same period and asked the ANN to predict what had happened to them. To their astonishment, it correctly predicted the fates of more than 90 per cent of those inmates.

The researchers then tried to determine which factors were most salient: gender (virtually no female prisoners are executed) and education--or, more precisely, "the number of years the inmate had spent in high school." It's suggested that prisoners without much education are worse at working on appeals.

Psalm 139:13-16, the Albert Mohler translation

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I suppose you could consider yourself largely responsible
for the way I would've turned out
had no one intervened.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your basic blueprint, plus a little medical tinkering.
Your works are wonderful,
mostly.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was woven together in the secret place.
After I was stitched up in the operating room,
your eyes saw my reformed body.

All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be--

but I guess my parents tore out a few pages.






[Inspired by Jason Kuznicki. For those lacking the satire gene, Albert Mohler did not write this. He wrote something else.]

Andy Schlafly and his acolytes get eviscerated

PZ Myers holds the camera, and Dr. Richard Lenski wields the scalpel.

It is my impression that you seem to think we have only paper and electronic records of having seen some unusual E. coli. If we made serious errors or misrepresentations, you would surely like to find them in those records. If we did not, then - as some of your acolytes have suggested - you might assert that our records are themselves untrustworthy because, well, because you said so, I guess. But perhaps because you did not bother even to read our paper, or perhaps because you aren't very bright, you seem not to understand that we have the actual, living bacteria that exhibit the properties reported in our paper, including both the ancestral strain used to start this long-term experiment and its evolved citrate-using descendants. In other words, it's not that we claim to have glimpsed "a unicorn in the garden" - we have a whole population of them living in my lab! [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unicorn_in_the_Garden] And lest you accuse me further of fraud, I do not literally mean that we have unicorns in the lab. Rather, I am making a literary allusion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allusion]

Oh, there's more.

how to avoid a liveblogging scandal

Recently a Lakewood councilman came under fire for liveblogging during a city meeting.

Lakewood City Councilman Walter Neary’s blog, Neary-Sighted, tells readers about items city leaders will discuss at the next meeting. He also has posted photos of community events.

But over the past three weeks, Neary’s practice of blogging up-to-the-minute accounts of what people say during public meetings has met criticism from residents. They say the two-term elected leader isn’t giving the public his undivided attention.

A typical Neary observation, compliments of his blog:

As I sit here on the council dais tonight, we're beginning to hear from a stream of parents during our open public comment period. (The comments were continuing as I posted this at about 8:15 p.m.) The parents are concerned with how the Clover Park School Board appointed a new superintendent.

The whole issue is extremely complex, but surely the matter will not go away. A high school student got up and told us that her class could not finish a college prep history test ... a test they were preparing for all year ... because they did not have the proper books. More to the point about administration, a parent read from district emails that were disclosed as part of a public records act request. She read from an email in which a board member wrote that the board had made a point about keeping superintendent matters out of email where comments would have to be disclosed to the public.

As a result, Kathi Loverin wrote,

“He was too busy ‘being a reporter’ and writing to this group of people telling them how they need to get involved rather than listening to the very people who are involved. I find it very disturbing that he would begin writing right in the middle of their comments session.”

Neary has his defenders as well, including blog neighbor Emmett O'Connell:

Look Lakewood, you're lucky to have a city-councilman that takes this so seriously that he blogs about it. First, learn some basic civics. Second, blog back at Neary.

That he was blogging what you were talking about tells me that he was actually taking you very seriously, he found what you were saying interesting and that he thought other people should hear about it. [emphasis in original]

Responding to O'Connell, Neary says that he'll give up liveblogging because it's just too "novel" for the masses.

I've done a few liveblogs in my day, and I have a few tips for any liveblogging novice.

1. Show up early. Find a vantage point that'll give you a good view of the situation. Maybe a corner in the back, where you won't be in the way of those who came to speak. Also, you can take notes on the environment, for the full you-are-there experience.

2. Bring digital recording devices. A $30 voice recorder is essential: it helps ensure you get the quotes right, and that you can review the meeting (played back at a faster rate, natch) for those moments where you might miss something because you're busy typing. Bring a camera, too. Visuals add color and depth to your piece, and there's no guarantee the newspaper will bring a photographer.

3. Practice by liveblogging something on TV. I find that liveblogging actually increases my attentiveness, but only after I've learned how to type and listen at the same time, and which quotes to pull, and which can be ...'ed away. (I suppose it would've helped if I'd taken more journalism classes.) Don't do a true liveblog until you've practiced at least three times.

4. Post every ten minutes. This facilitates your summarizing. You don't have to write down everything, just the important and non-boring things. And there will be boring things; it is a meeting, after all.

5. Limit your editorializing. Save most of your analysis for your closing thoughts. Keep your live-opinionating pithy.

I'm with Emmett: liveblogging, if done right, shows you actually care, and should be encouraged. But it has to be done right.

summer of film

Every movie I see this summer will eventually make this list.

1. Le Doulos ("The Fingerman")
Seen for the second time. A twisty, brooding French neo-noir thriller with a smooth and bleak finish. I can't wait until it gets the American DVD release it deserves--I had to find a copy on VHS. Almost all of Jean Pierre Melville's gangster films are excellent, and this is particularly sharp.

2. Samurai Rebellion
Costume drama. Couldn't finish it, despite my love for Toshiro Mifune (see below).

3. The Seven Samurai
2nd time. Mifune's overplayed but entertaining antics come close to stealing the show as six samurai and one honorary inductee save a village from extinction. Not the most artful of all the samurai films, but certainly one of the liveliest. It's fun to see Mifune as a raving bumbler, rather than as a suave family man or sly comic genius. The man had range.

4. Man Bites Dog
Violence is bad. The media is complicit. Children shouldn't play with guns. Yawn. Didn't even make it to five minutes.

5. The Big Animal
Peter Rainer's blurb: "You've never seen anything quite so hilarious--or magnificent!" A few chuckles dot this man-versus-the-guvmint fable, but it's not "hilarious." The camel gets most of the best lines.

6. A Fistful of Dollars
A decent remake of Yojimbo, though not as tightly written. Only one massively irritating feature: a trick involving corpses propped up against tombstones, confused for living soldiers. C'mon, bad guys. When shot at, living folks don't sit still.

7. The Orphanage
When a child who imagines friends asks if he can bring a new one home, just say no. Moody, which is to say slightly dull.

8. Jesus Camp
Charismatics train kids to take back the judiciary in this not too sympathetic look at evangelical fundamentalists. There are a few revelatory moments, though. One in particular: Ted Haggard, the not-yet-disgraced pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, who tells youthful preacher Levi to capitalize on his "cute kid" persona, and when he's older the "content will come." The look that crosses Levi's face is priceless. Even though Haggard's congregation is oblivious to his canned charm, Levi sees right through him. The kid'll be agnostic by 25.

9. Green for Danger
2nd time. Alaistair Sim's Inspector Cockrill is one of his most delightful roles. Devastatingly droll, the detective hopes to solve a convoluted murder mystery set in a hospital during the German rocket bombings late in the Second World War. Whodunit is ultimately less important than the fact that, despite the overarching trauma, it's being done. Highly recommended for fans of classic British cinema.

10. Harakiri
Same themes as "Samurai Rebellion," yet more absorbing due to a flashback structure and severe, ironic twists. Not for the squeamish or the impatient. The recent Hero owes a great debt to the aesthetic and story structure presented in this morally challenging and subversive film.

11. Layer Cake
Drug dealing is a tough business. Monomaniacs and psychopaths seem to muck things up for the cool, rational, Daniel Craigs of the profession, the guys who just want to earn their bread and retire to a life of pastries. Uber-cool and clever, but never affecting. Watch Snatch instead.

12. The Long Goodbye
After the previous film, a palate cleanser. Robert Altman's assured naturalistic surrealism upends noir; this is either parody or pastiche. Gould as Marlowe is superb, but it's Sterling Hayden's performance that best captures the tornado tearing through society. Would make a great double feature with Chinatown, which subverts noir more subtly, or with the 1970s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which explores similar tropes in an entirely different manner.

13. My Darling Clementine
2nd time. To my knowledge the first (and maybe last) Western to quote Hamlet. Its faults are thus forgiven.

14. WALL-E
Americans are fat, lazy slobs who sit around all day. Because they can. Thank God for enterprising robots.

15. In Bruges
Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell walk a thin line between humor and pathos in this clever and affecting gem, which is everything Layer Cake tried so hard to be. There are moments, though, when certain actors' appearance in Harry Potter films makes for unintended laughs. Highly recommended for fans of Snatch.

16. The Quiet Earth
If you were the last woman on Earth, and I was the last man, would you make me wait three dates before sharing your bed? The Quiet Earth says "you betcha." Not a big film, but in comparison to, say, I am Legend, much more realistic in its treatment of one man's descent into madness. At least, as far as a 1985 film on a fairly low budget made in New Zealand can be.

17. Barton Fink
2nd time. More than just a Simpsons punchline. The Coen Brothers are at their most surreal, John Goodman at his most subtle (for a time), John Turturro at his most coiffed. Who knew writer's block could be such a fruitful source of ideas? "I'll show you the life of the mind!"

18. Unfaithfully Yours
2nd time. Preston Sturges' "Walter Mitty." Rex Harrison delivers a nuanced, at times histrionic performance as a concert conductor who suspects his wife of infidelity, imagining various tragic outcomes as the orchestra plays under his feverish direction. The music threatens to overwhelm the actors, but Sturges manages to balance wit, pathos, and some of the most realistic slapstick ever conceived. Ever think of murdering your spouse? Think again.

19. Jumper
Jumpers can teleport. Paladins don't like that, not at all. Lowjinks ensue. A terrible film, but not terrible enough to be funny. As a mental emetic, I propose a cinematic anticharisma fight between Hayden Christensen and Keanu Reeves. They could be long-lost brothers on opposite sides of the law. At the end, one of them dies, doesn't matter which, and the world suffers less.

20. The Dark Knight
For the last time, don't ask me to tell you how I got my smile.

21. Total Recall
2nd time. The Matrix's take-the-blue-pill trick. Vanilla Sky's is-it-all-a-dream twist. Eternal Sunshine's erase-your-past premise. All owe a debt to Paul Verhoeven's trash classic--but, since it's Verhoeven, you get Schwarzenegger's beefcake and cheesy puns, a red light district replete with mutant hookers, and a dwarf toting an AK. In the director's commentary, Verhoeven is wonderfully ambiguous about the film's ontology, refusing to tell the viewer on which level the story operates. Pop philosophy, sci-fi and sexy fun. Philip K. Dick would be proud.

22. Army of Shadows
A film of the French Resistance, as resistant to Hollywoodization as possible. (In an ironic scene, two characters, awaiting orders in England, watch Gone With the Wind.) Bleak, depressing, moody, atmospheric, depressing, realistic, at times dull, at times brilliant, at times terrifying, depressing.

23. Doomsday
Amazingly, not directed by Paul Verhoeven, probably because he would have shoehorned it into just one genre. Instead, it's a post-apocalyptic virus-outbreak cannibal fashion statement car-chase Medieval actioner. For as much trashy fun as it wants to have, it's entirely too predictable, loud, and stupid.

24. The Steel Helmet
"If you die, I'll kill you!" Low-budget, gritty artistry from Sam Fuller. As Tim Brayton notes, one of the key characters, a South Korean kid named Short Round, is the inspiration for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom's Short Round, one of the cinema's most obnoxious roles. He's also reincarnated in John Wayne's The Green Berets as Ham Chunk, the tyke who gets patted on the head by the grizzled vet at the film's conclusion, as Big Daddy USA gets ready to save Vietnam. Wayne's film, of course, is an attempt to make a World War II-esque movie about the war, and an interesting point of comparison. There's certainly nothing patronizing, glorified, or falsely sentimental about The Steel Helmet.

25. Eastern Promises
The last film the wife and I watched that starred Viggo Mortensen: A History of Violence, directed by David Cronenberg, and costarring Ed Harris. (My wife and I absolutely hated it.) Responses to Eastern Promises: "Viggo looks like Ed Harris" (wife). "This reminds me of Dirty Pretty Things" (me). "Cronenberg could learn a thing or two from this" (wife). Eastern Promises is directed by Cronenberg, and written by Steven Knight, who wrote the screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things. As the credits rolled, my wife said, "Cronenberg could learn a lesson from himself." Agreed. Incredibly graphic, with the most intense--or, one might say, ballsiest--fight scene ever filmed.

26. The Descent
2nd time. Does it hold up? Yes. Especially when you're watching the "Director's Cut," which is code for the British Version, which is code for a bleaker ending than the one modified for American sensibilities. The use of light and confined space is the most effective aspect of the film, an exploration of the darker crevices of human nature disguised as a horror flick. Not for the squeamish.

27. Pickup on South Street
Thanks to Netflix Instant Viewing, another Sam Fuller film, this time a small noir with a surprisingly big heart. Richard Widmark plays a pickpocket who stumbles across Jean Peters, a woman entangled in a scheme transporting microfilm for the Reds. Thelma Ritter is the film's brightest star, however, as Moe, a stoolie who sells "personality neckwear" (my new favorite phrase) and information to the cops, and just wants to save up enough for a plot in a nice cemetery: "If I was to be buried in Potter's Field--it'd just about kill me."

28. Babel
It took me two years to see the last of Inarritu's trilogy of time-benders. It was by far the worst, not only because of the lack of realism--people making stupid decisions just because the plot seems to demand them--but because of the lack of energy. Compare the dull, meditative pace of this film to the surging, intense flow of Amores Perros. Same director, same writer, completely different experience.

29. Boomerang!
My test run for Hulu.com. Definitely worth the price--a few commercial interruptions--and in decent enough quality to enjoy on a small screen. The film, directed by Elia Kazan and with a great cast including Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden, who would later oppose each other in Kazan's greatest film, On the Waterfront, involves many of Kazan's main concerns: patriotism, corruption just below the surface of society, the individual standing up against the mob. A little didactic, but solid.

30. Lost Highway
The scrimmage for Mulholland Drive. Almost all the usual Lynchian touches, including a moody score by Angelo Badalamenti. This one, though, also features late 90s pop music, most of which hasn't aged well. Watch for Marilyn Manson in a bit part, and Bill Pullman playing an unconvincing sax, and Patricia Arquette's features--all of 'em.

31. Black Book
Make this the summer of Verhoeven. His best film to date, with enough twists, explosions, and plot-driven trashiness to make this film a throwback, with and yet irrepressibly modern. The plot: Anne Frank's trampy older sister joins the Dutch Resistance. Action ensues.

32. Dead End
A drama of gentrification.
Brood (v): to think anxiously or gloomily about. See: Humphrey Bogart.

33. The TV Set
An understated yet scathing look at the way a work of genius goes from pilot to pap. David Duchovny plays the weather-beaten writer. His supporting cast, many of whom are TV regulars, is effective. The fake shows-within-the-show are pitch-perfect, which is to say, perfectly designed crap. Afterward, the wife and I had to watch an episode of Arrested Development, and marvel that a good show ever gets to see the light of day.

34. The Conformist
Brilliant cinematography isn't enough to propel a slow, not-quite-intriguing story of one man's capitulation to fascism.

35. Red Road
Fear of the nanny state is usually framed with a question: who will watch the watchers? You will, if you chance upon Red Road, which uses closeups, grainy surveillance video, and gritty sections of Glasgow to create a compelling, shockingly graphic story. It stumbles only slightly at the finish, with a jarring musical intrusion that undercuts the tension of everything that came before.

36. The Grand Silence
I wish I could find a subtitled version--dubbing is the only flaw in this chilled spaghetti western. Klaus Kinski's eyes threaten to melt the Utah snow, and Jean-Louis Trintignant capably plays a Clint Eastwoodesque mute with vengeance on his mind. Ennio Morricone spices up the score with a sitar, a strangely effective choice.

37. Shallow Grave
Danny Boyle's first directorial effort is slick, but a little too stylish for its own good. For a better take on a similar premise, watch A Simple Plan (serious) or La Comunidad (absurdist). Shallow Grave goes for both, but never adds up. (Amazing that the same guy who directed this also cranked out Millions.)

38. Hamlet 2
A tragic disappointment.

39. Women of the Prehistoric Planet
MST3K-style, thankfully. No plot summary or capsule critique could capture the depths of feeling in this unique creation myth. No, really. Sorry if I spoiled the twist ending for you.

40. Robot Monster
"At what point on the graph do 'must' and 'cannot' meet?" I'm not sure, but it's precipitously close to the point where gorilla suits and bubble machines collide with a low budget and ridiculously short shooting schedule. In other words, right at the nexus known as Robot Monster. Even without MST3K commentary, this one's a hoot, and a great way to wind down a summer of film.

big man, little man

Circa Halloween, I'm guessing 1988. (Mom can correct me if I'm wrong; she sent me the photo.) Near the outskirts of White Sulphur Springs, just another ranching town in the middle of Big Sky Country.

My grandpa stands at left. Khakis, denim, and a sweater, with white tennis shoes: his classic outfit. His genial squint was worn just about as often.

I'm the Wyatt Earp wannabe beside him. As you can see, my amazing facial hair was already well in place at age 9.

the gravity of the situation

Why every high school student should be required to take physics, Part II: bullet goes up, bullet comes down.

Officers were dispatched to the two incidents at the same time about 10 p.m. One report was about possible fireworks or gunshots going off at an apartment complex at 815 S.E. 223rd. The other report involved a teen shot in the foot in the 22400 block of Southeast Morrison - about a block away, police said.

The victim, 16-year-old Josh Koga of Gresham, told police he was outside when he heard what he thought were fireworks or gunshots. He then felt pain in his foot and looked down to see it bleeding. There appeared to be a bullet lodged in his foot, police said.

Heck, even a basic discussion of parabolas, with story problems involving firearms, would help.

Part I here.

eight-legged geeks

Carl Zimmer:

So, is the octopus really all that smart? It depends on how you define intelligence. And if you've got a good definition, there are quite a few scientists who would love to hear it. Octopuses can learn, they can process complex information in their heads, and they can behave in equally complex ways. But it would be a mistake to try to give octopuses an IQ score. They are not intelligent in the way we are—not because they're dumb but because their behavior is the product of hundreds of millions of years of evolution under radically different conditions than the ones under which our own brains evolved.

Well, most of our brains, anyway.

today's traffic links

Today's news:

1. A car flips over in Puyallup. Two die.

2. Left-lane slowpokes, your time has come.

3. In Bellingham, the pedicab.

4. As the city readies for the Olympics, Beijing's trying to cut pollution by taking cars off the road. So far, it's not working.

Today's opinion:

5. Posting more traffic signs might actually make us less safe.

Added:

6. Via Joe Carter, an economist tries to think his way to better traffic.

7. D.A. Ridgely's take on #5.